Hyper Force

Hyper Force is a side-scrolling action-adventure platform video game developed by Visual Impact Productions and published by Songbird Productions exclusively for the Atari Jaguar on April 10, 2000.[1]

The players take control of a lone soldier in the year 2099, where a megacorporation that has destroyed multiple planets plans to start a war against Earth if they are not stopped. Originally announced in 1994,[2] Hyper Force was showcased in E3 1995 but it was not released until 2000, a year after the system was declared as an open platform by Hasbro Interactive in 1999.[3][4][5]

Gameplay

Hyper Force is a 2D, side-scrolling, action-adventure platform game which takes places on the fictional planet Terran where the player controls a lone soldier from the Interstellar Special Forces across four areas, each having a set of six levels to travel through on a mission to destroy the megacorporation Trans Con, who plans to launch an attack against Earth.[6] Progress is manually kept by the cartridge's EEPROM by saving on either of the three slots available by pausing the game at any time and pressing Option on the controller and they are allowed to resume their last game by pressing Option at the title screen and choosing either saved slot to continue.[6] The game cartridge also keeps high-scores and settings made by the player as well.

Throughout the course of the game, the player fights against a variety of enemies and robots, who randomly drop power-ups, health, tech items that increase the score and money to pick up after being destroyed, with the later being used at the Interstellar Special Forces shop after finishing a level to buy new weapons and their respective upgrades, health recharge and lives, though items are also scattered in the level to pick up as well.[6] After finishing six levels, a story cutscene is shown to progress the story. In various levels there hidden locations that contains items and other important elements introduced later in the game. Introduced in the first level are ropes that the player can hang on and traverse through the level while also shoot enemies when hanging, but players can also hang off from them by pressing down or jump from them by pressing both the jump and the shoot buttons at the same time.

Also scattered through the level are obstacles such as spikes and traps, with more obstacles such as destructible blocks and colored barriers that obstruct the pathway of the player, with the later becoming more important when other colored barriers are introduced and these can be opened by finding their respective colored switch. When shooting at the enemies on the ground, players can also aim their shots by crouching or looking up. Players can also collide with enemies but they do not receive points by doing so and if they die, they are sent back to the start of the level but item pick ups are not respawned and the game is over once all lives are lost. Colliding with the metallic orbs scattered around the level that obstruct the path too many times will result in the activation of a 100-second destruction timer, which kills the player instantly if they do not quickly find the exit from the level.

title	Hyper Force
developer	Visual Impact Productions
publisher	Original release NA/EU: Computer West Relaunch WW: Songbird Productions
designer	David Govaert Thomas Vidts
programmer	Claude Verstraeten Kris Van Lier
artist	Kurt Huyghe Tom Willemkens
composer	Kurt Drubbel
platforms	Atari Jaguar
released	Original release NA/EU: Cancelled Relaunch WW: 10 April 2000
genre	Action-adventure, platform
modes	Single-player

Gameplay

Plot

Development and release

Reception

External links

References